Earthlight (EL) sightings may date back as far as recorded history.
Possible Earthlight encounters may be described in the Bible. In areas
of the globe where ELs occur, reports of sightings go back decades if
not centuries and millennia. In ancient times, the science to explain
Earthlights did not exist. Aboriginal people used religion, superstition
and the supernatural to describe and explain phenomena that they
experienced but could not comprehend.

Worldwide, Earthlights have evoked strong associations with ghosts and
spirits in those who witnessed them. In Marfa, Texas, where Earthlights
frequently occur, around 1850 an Apache chief named Alsate was executed
by the Mexican Rurales. Native Americans believed the lights were the
spirit of Alsate, trying to rejoin his people. In Australia, aboriginal
people believed light sightings to be the spirits of their ancestors who
watch and control them. In parts of the American south, the lights are
known as “ghost lights” and are associated with the supernatural. Even
in Southern Arizona, sightings are called “spook lights.” Other cultures
regard Earthlights as natural but unexplainable. In Yakima, Washington,
Native Americans accepted frequent sightings of lights dating back to
legends of their great grandfathers as well as contemporary sightings as
part of “mother earth.” Sightings have occurred near fault lines in the
UK, prompting author Paul Devereux to coin the phrase “Earthlight” used
by this web site. Accounts of contemporary Marfa Texas close up
encounters can be found in a book by Judith M. Bureske, Ph. D. 1

There may be some basis in reality for association of the Earthlights
with the paranormal. People who have had close encounters with the
lights often report unusual sensations, which they have interpreted as
mystical or even religious experiences. This may be due to an
explainable phenomenon-- human encounter with strong time-varying
magnetic fields. Preliminary measurements indicate strong magnetic
activity in the vicinity of Earthlights. Canadian neurophysiologist,
Michael Persinger, has demonstrated in the laboratory that he can create
“religious,” or subjectively “paranormal” experiences in volunteers
wearing a helmet that induces such magnetic fields in their brains.

Why have so few scientific studies been done on the Earthlight
phenomenon? Probably because Earthlights have been so closely associated
with mythological, superstitious, and supernatural lore that many
scientists have mistakenly denied the phenomenon exists rather than
appreciate the attempts of uneducated populations to describe and
document the indescribable.

IEA believes there is a basis of truth in most legends, and that by
carefully investigating the gestalt behind the legend, rather than
interpretations or taking them at face value, valid and valuable
information can be uncovered that may lead to new insights. We take
legend seriously as the verbal record of ancient echoes that may have
future reverberations.